A 24-year-old Watsonville man drove the wrong way on Highway 17 near the summit Wednesday and lead officers on a high-speed chase, the California Highway Patrol said.

At 11:20 a.m., Tomas Zavalla Herrera was driving a white GMC Sonoma pickup truck southbound on Highway 17 when he nearly slammed into an on-duty Scotts Valley police sergeant who was riding on a motorcycle, the CHP said.

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A CHP officer was monitoring traffic at the summit but did not see the near collision.

The highway patrol officer, however, saw the truck use Highway 17's northbound lanes to get around and pass cars in the southbound lanes. Several northbound vehicles served out of the way to avoid head-on collisions.